Cameroon Part 1

The team was to pick me up in Chateauroux. I had driven up the day before to split my journey in 2 to reduce the amount of time I would be sitting in cars and planes. The phone rang and I went off to meet them at the Supermarket on the outskirts of town. We loaded my bike and bag into the van, and were off to Paris. The rest of team was also pretty burned out on traveling as it turns out. I had been going back and forth between Chateauroux and Home numerous times for the past couple weeks. The team had been up in Brittany last weekend (a good 8 or 9 hour drive), and had raced on the way home the following day. So they had also all been sitting in cars for 5-9 hour stints for the past couple weeks.

It was good to catch up with everyone, as I actually haven’t seen half the team for months. The squad for Cameroon was the monstrous Scott Lyttle from New Zealand. Scotty has been having a hell of a good season, British riders, Scott Chalmers, James Spragg and Sim Green, the remaining 2 riders where French, Adrien Calatayud and new rider Richard Brunet. Richard is shockingly strong, but has a lot to learn about cycling and life on the whole. A nice enough guy, but sadly he hasn’t quite fitted into the team yet.

The trip up was bearable, it is the end of the season so we stopped and got some chips and chocolate to munch on, and believe it or not, nobody said anything to us. It’s the end of the season and it must be said none of us were particularly serious about this event. Except for Richard who was totally 120% gung-ho. Scotty (Lyttle) and James had had their vaccinations a few days ago, and they told me the worst was still to come. Chalmers was in pretty much the same boat as me. I.e.: totally buggered, aching eyes, bad headaches and general all over body pain. Surprisingly enough though, neither of the 2 French guys had any side-effects from the vaccinations. Strange. James and Chalmers seemed to spend most of the trip sleeping in the back of the van.

As we got closer to Paris we worked our way through traffic and finally made it to the Formula 1 hotel near Charles de Gaulle airport. We unloaded and headed out to eat. There were a bunch of hotels all forming a U shape, and in the middle was a Courtepaille Restaurant. We assumed we were going there to eat. But “oh no”, that would be too simple. We all (us and a few riders from AVC Aix he had bumped into) pilled into our team vehicles and headed off to burn off fuel in the search for somewhere to eat. Knowing the area fairly well from Bikestyle trips I knew there was nothing in the area, unless we drove for MILES. After going round in circles for 15-20 mins, we ended up back at the hotel… we parked the cars, got out, and went to eat at the Courtepaille right on our Hotel doorstep, much to our “amusement”.

After a good feed it was off to bed. We were 3 to a room, and with noisy planes flying overhead it was far from being a good night’s sleep. We had to be up early the next morning to catch the plane, so for all bar 2 of us I think 2 of us, the lack of sleep was not the best preparation for the UCI 2.2 event that awaited us.

Today I also found out a little more about the elimination Crit. As it turns out you can't get "eliminated". 1 rider from each team takes the start of each round (so 20 riders per round), on every lap the 2 last riders are eliminated. The last rider standing goes through to the final. So total distance if very short, the result has no bearing on General Classification and it is all just to decide who will wear the first yellow jersey, and to give the crowds a bit of a show and a it is also a way to do a team presentation with a little action.